Life Matters - Separate stories podcast

University is a big leap for any young person. But, for country students who have to move away to study, it comes with the added expense of relocating and living away from home.The rising cost of living is making it even harder, according to the Country Education Foundation. It says only two in five of its supported students qualify for government assistance, and it's campaigning for more support to close the regional-metro education gap.

You've planned some time off. You madly finish off all the work you need to get done before your break. Your first day of leave begins and... you get sick."Leisure sickness" is a term coined by Dutch researchers for people who are more likely to get sick on the weekend or holidays than during the working week.There's very little science to back it up, but there are some theories as to why it might happen — and what you can do to avoid it.

As our cities grow, there's a push to build up, not out — including in our suburbs.For more families, that means home will be an apartment rather than a house.So how do we make sure higher density living is family-friendly? What does good design look like when you're raising kids on the 20th floor?

Author, columnist, and screenwriter Kathy Lette has written dozens of books — but she credits just one as the spark that set her on the path to becoming a writer.In this instalment of Book That Changed My Life, she goes behind the scenes of Vanity Fair by English author William Makepeace Thackeray.

If you knew a secret about a new co-worker, would you share it with your colleagues? Where do you draw the line between harmless gossip and unprofessional chatter?

How's your relationship with your mother? If you're a daughter of a baby boomer, that question might hit particularly hard. There's a conversation evolving online around the complicated bond between Gen X women and their mums.Mother-daughter relationships come with heavy cultural baggage: expectation, guilt, comparison, and tough love. So how do we address "the mother wound"?

Analogue hobbies are having a moment again — crochet clubs, scrapbooking and journalling are all over social media.These once old-fashioned pastimes are finding a whole new wave of fans, with some data suggesting it's younger generations leading the charge.So what's behind the resurgence in offline hobbies?

Aussies couples are moving away from joint finances, and are choosing to be more financially independent in their relationships instead, a new report has found.But a separate bank account doesn't automatically mean the money is protected if the relationship ends.The Australian Institute of Family Studies warns that, for unmarried couples in particular, what feels like financial independence on paper may not hold up under the law.

More than 446,000 Australians are living with dementia. For many, it's a diagnosis that can turn your world upside down. But it doesn't mean life stops.For both Jim Rogers, who was diagnosed with early onset dementia in his 50s, and Debra Graves, who cared for her husband Don after his diagnosis, an important part of their new reality was prioritising travel. It meant figuring out how to manage symptoms and navigate unfamiliar environments while making the most of precious time with their loved ones.

Over the past three years, homelessness in Australia has grown by at least 10 per cent. Meanwhile in Finland, a strategy known as Housing First has seen long-term homelessness rates drop significantly over the past decade. The idea is simple: instead of moving people through hostels and emergency shelters, give them permanent housing first — and then provide the support they need.So could it work here, and what would it take to implement at scale?